Creating Coherent Paragraphs

Creating strong paragraph
coherence is all about being a good guide. Imagine that you
are in the passenger seat with a friend driving the car. You
are going to a destination that the driver is unfamilar with,
but that you know well, and so you give the driver directions.
Writing coherent paragraphs is kind of like giving driving
directions: You guide the reader from one locale to the next
locale until you reach your destination. Writers use several
tools to help provide this guidance: transitional expressions,
pronouns, repeated key words and phrases, echo words, and
implicit logical connections between ideas. In this
module, students will learn to use these tools effectively
in their writing to create coherent paragraphs.

Objectives: In this module students
will learn to use the following tools to create coherent
paragraphs and to revise paragraphs for greater coherence:

transitional expressions

pronouns

repetition of key words and phrases

echo words

implicit logical connections between ideas

What does coherence mean?

"Coherence" refers to the logical flow of ideas
in a paragraph. A paragraph is coherent when each sentence
leads smoothly into the next one through the use of transitional
expressions, logical relation of ideas, repetition of key
words, and/or the use of pronouns to refer to a previous
subject. A paragraph is not coherent if there are inadequate
connections between ideas causing the reader to get lost
or to struggle to figure out the author's intentions.

Creating coherence through transitional expressions

One way to improve paragraph coherence is through the use
of transitional expressions between sentences. Transitional
expressions are words used to signify the type of connection
between sentences; they indicate that the next sentence will
be an example, or the effect of a cause just stated, an explanation,
or an expansion of thought on the previous idea, etc.

There are many transitional expressions, but don't feel
you need to memorize them all to create coherence. Knowing
a handful of expressions will help you in most situations,
and opening a writer's handbook to a list of expressions,
or simply "googling" "transitions" or "transitional
expressions"
should help you find what you need if you get stuck.

Be careful, however, not to overuse transitional expressions. Save
them for significant connections between ideas that you want
to call special attention to. Overuse can be distracting.

Coherence through logic

Often sentences have implicit logical connections that help
the reader follow the thread of a discussion or argument.
When a writer picks up on a subject that has been established
in the previous sentence, coherence is established. Consider
the example below:

Chinatown offers one of the largest Asian American grocery
districts in the country. Skinned animals hang in windows
of butcher shops here like clothes hang in the windows
of suburban department stores.

Though no transitional expression is used, the passage is
coherent. It is clear that the writer is continuing a discussion
of grocery stores in Chinatown, offering an interesting an
distinctive detail about these stores.

A good way to test the coherence of your paragraph is to
examine each sentence and ask yourself what your reader would
expect you to say next based on that sentence. Given
the first sentence in the passage above, a reader might ask
"What are these stores like?" or "What is
distinctive about these stores that draws Asian-Americans?" The
next sentence supplies an acceptable answer to that question,
and so the passage is coherent.

Coherence through repetition

Key Words:

Key words are the words carrying most significance in a
paragraph— the key words are those words a writer wants
the reader to focus on as the paragraph progresses. In the
following exerpt from a paragraph on sports tourism, note
the key words used by the author:

Consistent with the results of other studies, most sporttourists tend
to be between the ages of 18 and 44, male, and relatively
affluent. Again, as with the first sample (Gibson & Yiannakis,
1992), a notable group of men and women in late adulthood
chose to be active sporttourists.
This information can be readily demonstrated by the winter-month
use of golf courses in the southeastern United States by "snowbirds." For
recreation agencies in these areas, winter-month use by
retirees is of prime importance. For leisure education
practitioners, such activity patterns not only dispel stereotypes
attributed to older adults but also support the idea of
teaching sport skills that can be practiced
throughout a person's life. The majority of active sport
tourist research has focused on people who participate
in one specific sport. . . (Gibson)

These key words remind the reader that the details discussed
all elaborate on the subject of sports tourism.

Echo Words & Phrases:

Echo words and phrases allow writers to remind the reader
of the topic being discussed without becoming repetitive,
as too much repetition of the same words can be distracting
and even irritating to a reader. Echo words are actually
synonyms for the key word, but they can also be phrases. Consider
the echo words in the following paragraph about tourists
and souvenirs:

The steady production of souvenirs throughout
the mid-20th century has created a well that collectors
can tap. The objects that have proved
the most desirable in recent years are ones dating from
the 1920s through the 1960s. For collectors, the good news
is that the tablecloths, tumblers, snow globes, ashtrays,
charm bracelets, and other objects from
this period were produced in such large quantities that
surviving examples are still easy to find
and affordable. Prices range from a few dollars to a few
hundred, with many falling between $20 and $40. (Proeller)

The key word in this paragraph is "souvenirs." To
avoid repetition of this word, however, the author uses substitutes:
"objects" and "examples." Note,
too, that the author adds adjectives and modifying phrases
to the echo words to further clarify her meaning, as in "other
objects from this period," and "surviving examples." Echo
words and phrases are far more desirable than general pronouns
like "this" and "it" because they do
add so much clarity to the sentence. In fact, using
these general pronouns can often get developing writers into
trouble with pronoun reference problems, so an echo word
or phrase is a far better choice for a subject.

Pronouns:

Pronouns have a place in creating coherence, however. Pronouns
can help a writer avoid repetition of a subject when there
is no confusion about who or what that subject is.

And then there are those collectors who
find the whole vintage-souvenir genre irresistible, and they collect
with wild abandon. (Proeller)

If there is potential confusion about the word the pronoun
refers to, the using an echo word or phrase is probably preferable.

Gibson, Heather. "The rules of the game." Parks & Recreation,
34:6, June, 1999.
Proeller, Marie, "Wish you were here." Country
Living, New York:22, July 1999.